Arsenal’s Carabao Cup Game At Liverpool Previewed

It’s back to Carabao Cup action for Arsenal tonight as they travel to Liverpool looking to gain a place in the last eight of the competition. It’s a competition Arsenal haven’t won since 1993, but it’s not exactly at the top of their list of targets for this season. The game gives Unai Emery the chance to make quite a few changes from the team who drew at home to Palace on Sunday and presumably Liverpool will follow the same path too.

The manner of the draw with Palace was far from ideal considering Arsenal were 2-0 up early on and some of the events of the day would be best forgotten. The abuse Granit Xhaka got from some of the home fans when he was substituted was awful to witness, but his reaction was not what you would or should expect from our captain. I would be very surprised if we saw him in the team tonight and the manager has to decide if he should remain as captain and keep his place in the team.

We have a fairly big squad with plenty of competition for every position in the team, but the manager seems unable to find his strongest team or even a style of play. That’s probably the biggest issue with most fans at the moment as we look capable of being beaten by any team in the Premier League. It also renders us incapable of controlling a game which we witnessed yet again against Palace.

Patience is growing thin and the open hostility which was witnessed during Arsene Wenger’s final years has reared it’s ugly head again. We invested heavily in the summer and we have players who should be capable of at least finishing in the top four, but we are not getting the most from them. The finger is being firmly pointed at the manager and it has almost reached the stage where he has to be very seriously worried about his job.

Normally tonight might have been a bit of a free hit considering the competition and the strength of the opposition, but recent events have probably changed that. He would certainly buy himself more time with a victory tonight and I wonder if that will have an influence on his team selection. Even a sub-strength Liverpool will be tough to beat at Anfield, but a few of the players who played on Sunday might give Arsenal a slight advantage.

It looks like Mesut Ozil will be in the squad and it’s tough to know if that’s a direct result of so many fans singing his name on Sunday or the manager grasping at straws as he tries to save his bacon. I hope Ozil plays and puts in a magnificent performance, but it’s not easy to do so in a team that lacks direction from the man in charge. 

I think we have a chance tonight with so many probable changes in both sides and our second string have been impressive in most of their games this season. It’s a game that could go badly wrong though and we have suffered badly at Anfield all too often in recent seasons. I just hope for a good display and a show of some unity I suppose and who knows what the outcome might be.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.